Etsy links.

Time to clear out the etsy.com links on my top bar. I was on a bit of a stuffed animal and footwear kick over the past couple weeks.

From Capow Art and Design, a cool little change purse modelled after an old-fashioned cassette tape.



MinitureRhino makes a lot of interesting items. I'm particularly drawn to their tree ring embroideries and their embroidered star maps.



A popular shop in the felt-sculpture world, hine makes all sorts of interesting pouches for the electronics in your life.



I always like owl art. Squishyfish makes it the creepiest.



Also right up there in the quirky stuffed animal department is Skunkboy Creatures. I would take one of each of there items, I just have no idea where I'd put them all.



Spirocreations makes way too many over-fringed belts, but they make really cool footwear. Unfortunately, footwear hand-sewn by someone other than me is sort of out of my price range. I"ll have to get more into boot making in the future.



Netamir's Designs. Ditto.

Etsy again.

Whenever an item catches my attention on etsy.com I stick the link into the line-up at the top of the Internet window. I manage to collect these little buttons quite frequently and things start to become more cluttered than I can handle. I have to admit, with a bit of time, I tend to forget what I've even squirrelled away.

That's why I like to make posts like this. I can take a look at my favourite shops again and show the pretty pictures.

Valerie Taylor makes all sorts of beautiful jewellery. I love the collision between industrial metal and nature that she's got going on.



The art at ISphotography by Irene Suchocki is unique and interesting. She uses metallic papers to create different effects when creating her prints.



I love all of the pottery that Raquel Masri produces. She makes Damask style items, such as the serving tray shown below, and she loves to incorporate one of my favourite images into her work, the Keep Calm and Carry On poster.




Sweetshorn Vintage can provide for all of your vintage home decor, toys, art, and tiny treasures. This is my kind of shop even though half the fun in thrifting is going out to find the treasures.



Bliss in a teacup makes all sorts of interesting treasures. I really like the things they do with chalkboard paint and I think these embroidered clocks are very clever. Great inspiration and design ideas.



Another photographer today, Bueller uses a 'through the lens' technique to capture digital images with the old-timey feel of antique and retro camera gear. I like this a lot because I'm always after the look, but actually using the older camera gear makes processing very expensive. They also have some cool Keep Calm and Surf On prints. I think I'm drawn to a very specific type of artist.



O, look a little baby! With tiny little shoes! I like everything at Lala Shoes.



Clayswan makes playful, happy pottery in every shade of the rainbow. I love this look.



That's all for now, but there's plenty more where this comes from.

Roofers 2.

Today one of the roofers had to come inside and take measurements in our bathroom. The landlord is installing a ventilation system and the roofers needed to know where to drop the vent in. During his time in the bathroom he admired the public service announcement I have posted on the door. What can I say? The craftmanship and creativity that went into this piece makes for an obviously eye-catching door decoration.



My favourite aspects of this installation include the way the paper has weathered with humidity over time, the place where I made a mistake in the word genuine and just wrote over it, and the spot where my pen started to run out of ink.

The sign reads: BEWARE giant house centipedes live here. (artists rendition, to scale though) ALSO, BE GENUINE (everyone can use a little reminder from time to time).

Etsy rundown.

Man, there are so many talented, creative people out there. You can find pretty much anything you desire, handmade or vintage, at etsy.com. I've been stockpiling a few of my favourite items and stores and thought I'd share them here.

First off, I'm probably going to buy this t-shirt at Xenotee's shop once I'm finished this post. The swirl is made up of all of the collective animal terms, such as "an unkindness of ravens", a "knot of toads", or a "romp of otters":



All of the hewn resin and silver jewellry at Quercus Silver's shop is very cool. I also enjoy the use of the latin name for oak species:



The wax and oil paintings at Landfall are all completely beautiful. I like sets of paintings and landscapes a lot. Once I have a wall to hang them on, one of these will be mine:




Cardboard Safari is a shop full of quirky things. These remind me of the collection of 2D to 3D animal and dinosaur puzzle toys I had as a child. There's just something really appealing to me about mounting fake animal heads on a wall:




Anatomy of a Skirt makes robot pouches in theme sets. Collect them all! Then fill them with your items! Go from an original robot to a bedtime bot to a spider bot in no time at all! There's a bot for everyone:







And I can't make an etsy post without mentioning the potters. Michelle Swafford Pottery has all kinds of vessels, dishes, and jewellry too:

One more thing today.

I just came across a link to a British Knitted Village. This incredible model was made by an Afternoon Club. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I'm guessing it's a lot of older ladies getting together and knitting crazy cool things.



The entire project took over 23 years to complete by the 40 members of the club. Each of the buildings in their town of Mersham, near Ashford, is included and the details they included are absolutely countless. Now that they're all finished, the pieces will be auctioned off and all proceeds will go towards their local town hall.

Stop Motion Craft.

I spent some time today watching stop animation on YouTube. I like the crafty ones the best. Here are a couple of the best examples I found today. The first one is how to make a felt bunny. At the end, a bunch of different bunnies are shown. I really like how the creator makes the embroidery letters.

This second animation is quite clever. The mole is made from fabric and thread. I really like making little creatures like this one to have around the house. There's a neat science-y twist at the end of this one.

And, a morbid tale of a giant button attacking a town of mini buttons. You'll just have to watch this one. It's a bit sad, actually. Great character development though.

Finally, a clip I've been meaning to bring here for awhile. Actually, this brings me to an entire story I've been meaning to tell here. This is an interpretation of one of my favourite Edward Gorey tales from childhood. Last summer Bronwen and I went to see a special exhibit at the Toronto Public Library. I came across this book and I had forgotten all about it (where did it go?). Somehow, I managed to forget about it again until recently when I joined an Edward Gorey swap on Ravelry and was thinking about some of his work. This time, though, I couldn't remember the name of the book so I couldn't find it anywhere. I e-mailed the librarians at the Osbourne Children's Collection at the TPL and they got back to me the next day with the title. Since then I've been checking out all sorts of media inspired by Edward Gorey's work. This is my favourite creation of "An Inanimate Tragedy".

Umami.

I have so many things that I need to mention here right now that I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I feel like it's been ages since I posted last. It's fairly obvious that I need to keep on top of this interspace and visit often in order to manage the things in life that are making me feel a little stressed out.

So, on six seemingly unrelated notes (not really though, it's always so much more complicated than that...just remembered a 7th item to mention), allow me to dazzle you with the going-ons in my life.

1. I try really hard to eat like a vegetarian. I'm by no means perfect and I definitely do through some meat-eating phases. These usually coincide with special occaisions when large family meals are traditionally served. Summer BBQ time is also tough. The thing is, I really an a bit of a foodie and I truly miss the flavours that get left out when I don't eat certain food groups. A long time ago Em and I came across the term umami in biology class. Umami is a Japanese word that means something along the lines of meaty or savoury. It is the fifth taste to go along with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. So, I'm hunting for some good ways to eat more veggie umami tasting foods. As I type, there is a large crock pot of chili bubbling away in the kitchen. It's full of cremimi and other little mushrooms that I can't remember the name of right now. I also added a whole bunch of vegetable protein because I need more of that in my life too.

2. Awhile ago I had personal information cards (I'm not exactly part of a business) printed by a really cool company from the UK called Moo.com. I uploaded images from my work and travels last summer then designed the info part including a picture of myself. I used 23 different background pictures for 60 cards and I could have used 60 different ones if I so desired. Moo.com is a really cool website and a great company to work with. I would highly recommend them for any of your printing needs. You can also make personalized postcards and stickers at the site and I will definitely be partaking in the future. Last time I attended a conference I ended up ripping about 6 pages out of my notebook to scribble down my contact information. I hope I'll get to hand out a whole lot of these this summer instead.



3. Today I received a phonecall from the mother of one of the students I tutor. Apparently he achieved a Gold Medal at the science fair I judged last week! There were just so many displays at the fair that I didn't come across him at all. He didn't see me either, and only knew I was there when he noticed my name as one of the judges in the handout from the award ceremony. Awards were handed out at 8:30 pm and I was only at the fair during the morning. I'm disappointed that I missed him, but I'm very proud of his work.



4. Last week, my good friend Bronwen, from Ottawa, sent me a package in a colourswap. This was a little mail exchange I organized with a few of my crafty friends. Everyone had a secret person to send a package to full of knit, found, made, or thrifted items in the recipient's favourite colours. One of my favourites is blue and she sent me a lot of really neat treats along with a handmade, bound notebook. Bronwen is a great bookbinder and I love receiving notebooks from her. This one is called good notes. I'm going to write in all sorts of little quotes and poems I come across that inspire me. The first one is a favourite of mine by e.e. cummings. He was on my mind from two posts ago.



5. Before and after this post I've been working on a new crochet project. I rarely crochet, it jsut isn't my thing, but I will always love the mindlessness that is the creation of a granny square. The most traditional pattern in all of crochet has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing patterns in Canadian history. Image a cottage without a granny square afghan? Last weekend, I was home and Belva gave me a giant bag of cast-away wool. Even though I'm trying to pare down my belongings, I will gladly accept any offering of wool. In the bag there were 11 balls of Shetland Chunky Tweed in horrible, coordinating colours. So, now I am making a giant granny square tweed blanket and taking into consideration everything I know about colour theory to make this mix into an appealing blend of warmth and coziness.



6. Yesterday and today I received e-mails from the ESA conference in Albequerque, New Mexico and Perth, Australia, saying that my abstracts for oral presentations were accepted. I'm very excited to travel a bit, but I really need to get my thesis finished. Today I caught a little snag in the results section and it definitely brought me down. I was feeling pretty rough and had to leave work and get some fresh air. Tomorrow will be a new day though and I'm going to forge ahead with the discussion.

7. Last, but definitely not least, this morning Doug was talking about the Guelph Guitar and mentioned that Robert Bateman had offered him a piece of Tom Thomson's coffin for the guitar or case. The thought of this is sort of overwhelming and the entire web of stories about art, science, history, life, people, culture, everything inbetween that I can't even think of right now just blows my mind. I'm so glad Doug is putting this all together and I've had the chance to see behind the scenes. I'm a huge fan of early 19th century Canadian landscape art, the work of the Group of Seven and everyone associated with them. I could go on and on about this part of the story, but my fingers are getting tired. I don't know if Doug will take this piece for his work because how will he ever sum up the circumstances that led to this offer in one chapter of his book?



That felt really good. Getting all of this out of my brain allows me to realize that there are many more important things to consider in the world besides my protein intake levels. Got to stay humble,
Cass

Today.

Blog needed some organization today. The list of blogs I follow keeps growing and growing. I decided to add categories to make things easier to keep track of. I think I like the new set-up.

I'm really glad I started writing here. Whenever I need a break from anything I can come here and feel completely refreshed. Writing out all of these things that usually swirl around in my head makes me feel much more focused and pulled-together. Also, I've found endless sources of inspiration in the blogging world and it's really nice to know that they are all in order here. Every time I open up this page I find something new and exciting.



Now that I've become more comfortable with html editing I know how to make the changes I want to make before I tell other people about this place. Today I figured out how to make a little icon for my blog tab. This why my personal style will show up on the tab as well and readers will be able to collect it for their bookmarks. The one I added today is not simplified enough to show up on such a small scale. I just clipped one of my favourite images from the title bar and used converted it to an icon file with this free converter: converticon.com. It's cute and worked well ad has a little Mac interface design. Then I uploaded it to this spot to make a direct link to the image: Image Boo Hosting. So, I'll work on the header and the icon over the next little while, but things are starting to come together!

O, and I almost forgot to mention, check out this collision of art and science:


Fluid Sculpture from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.

Cass

Poetry.

I've always been interested in the work of certain poets. Two favourite I always read are Margaret Atwood and e.e. cummings. I have a few other collections of poetry, but I've never really been completely sucked in. Today though, I found this fragment of prose and it struck a chord with me:

FIGS ALMONDS DATES

We have in our cross-hairs
your

figs, almonds, dates, your pome-
paradise, your orchard

--"A duet with Rav Zalman who used to sing," Margaret Aho

I went on a bit of an internet search to try to find more. I couldn't find this particular poem at all, so I might head to the library in the next few days. I have a hard time letting this sort of thing go. I still need to write about the mystery book I mentioned a few days ago.

While I was looking for that particular poem I came across some more of Margaret Aho's work at the Beloit Poetry Journal. This journal is an incredible collection of interesting poetry. It appears to be free to access the entire site by anyone. From the website's History Page:

"The BPJ has remained remarkably consistent in its independent and eclectic editorial policy, its high standards, its international scope, its selection process, and its format. It has never missed an issue."

I'll definitely have to heck this out a little further. In my searches I also came across this little inter-gem: The Poet Name Generator. It never ceases to amaze me what people will do with their free time. From my html coding today I know that developing this sort of site is no easy task. It takes at least a good portion of a university-level course to come up with this sort of thing. So, yeah, approximately 14 solid years of education.

Cheers,
Lady Evelyn Picklesouse

Childhood books and authors.

One of the things we talk about a lot around here is how the conventional educational system attempts to squish the creativity out of everyone who enters it. Now, I'm all for public schools. I went through the public school system in Ontario during the Mike Harris years and we saw drastic changes in quality. I also managed to make my way though and turn out to be a genuinely creative person. I spend all of my spare time making things, I have a well-developed imagination, I appreciate the creative efforts of the people around me, and I work to surround myself with beautiful things (thanks Em). However, I was a bit of an outcast in my earlier school days. I hated it then, but I thank the gods everyday now that I did. Somehow I made my way through a situation that I perceived to be difficult and unnecessary at the time and turned it into a character building experience. That being said, it is fairly obvious that many of the students I work with did not manage to succeed as I did; highschool has numbed their brains and sucked out much of their creativity.



In his retirement, Doug is planning on tackling this lack of creativity through the Guelph Guitar project. He aims to engage all of the people of Guelph in stories about the science and history in this city. I think this is a cool idea.

I'm dealing with this issue in my own way, as well. I think that remembering our favourite childhood stories, authors, and illustrators is a great way to get our creativity flowing. This is why I like to post about my favourites here. I'm creating a little collection of stories that had an impact on me in my formative years and gaining inspiration from them for my current work. Some day I'll even tell more people about this blog and they can take a look at them too. When we grow up we operate based on logic and learned reason (hopefully). But when we were young we operated on imagination and our perception of the unbelievably large world around us. There weren't any rules governing physics or the universe that we knew of, so the stories we admired could take us anywhere we wanted to go where we could do anything we wanted to do. I suppose some clever adults slipped in a meaningful lesson or two along the way, but really we were free to take them however we wanted to.

One of my favourite childhood places was Where the Wild Things Are. Maurice Sendak created this story in 1963. Reading that article, I just realized that the book contains only 10 sentences. The way I remember things, this story holds much more important information than my adult brain considers 10 sentences to contain.

Next October 2009, wherever you are, I'd recommend taking this in. It's amazing what creative people can do with 10 sentences and a lot of cash.